Sunday, February 10, 2008

In-Progress At Daytona: Pole Qualifying for Daytona 500

The NASCAR on Fox broadcast team returns at 1PM Eastern Time Sunday for the Daytona 500 pole qualifying session.

As fans may remember, this is a long process with fifty-plus cars taking runs. The challenge for the TV network, as usual, has always been the placement of commercials.

With no "top 35" rule in effect because of the Daytona format, the entire group will just run in continuous qualifying with no interruption. This should challenge the network to coordinate well in advance their commercial and promotional rundown.

Larry McReynolds is just the person to explain this new qualifying dynamic because of the COT. In pre-season testing he went in-depth about the emphasis on the motor because of the identical body styles of this new car. For those of us who are a little bit older, it will be interesting not to see the complaining about the body styles and who has the advantage. That was a given at Daytona.

SPEED previews this session with a Go or Go Home show at 11:30AM Eastern, and then follows it with a ninety minute NASCAR Live at 4:30PM.

This page will serve to host your comments about the Daytona Pole Qualifying coverage on Fox Sports. To add your comment, simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. Thanks again for stopping by.

Go or Go Home was what Speed called the last 30 minutes of Nascar Live (right before qualifying) last year although they did not concentrate on those teams outside the top 35 so the title was sort of a joke. This show they did which was a great improvement and made it fit the title. I don't know if this is just for the 500 or ongoing.

FOX does not own DirecTV. DirecTV is partially owned by NEWSCORP, which also happens to own SPEED and FOX.

Due to the relationship between SPEED and DirecTV, DirecTV is the first to carry SPEED HD.

It is your cable company's fault if they do not have SPEED HD. Sure SPEED can do more to get cable companies on board, but the cable CO's are the ones making everyone without direcTV wait for SPEED HD.

Chad Little said... So, FOX, SPEED & DIRECTV are owned by same company!!! No reason the cable companies would want to have DIRECTV get first crack at SPEED HD?.

February 10, 2008 1:36 PM

DirecTV is PARTIALLY owned by NEWSCORP.

All this means is DirecTV has more HD channels like SPEED HD at this time. And that should encourage cable companies to get more HD channels. It is in SPEEDs best interest the be carried on other cable companies as soon as posible.

Well obviously my request of yesterday for the Fox production crew to front-load the commercials so they could show all the go-or-go homers run with no interruption at the end of the session got wiped out because NASCAR dropped the ball and for some reason doesn't apply the new qualifying order rule to the Daytona 500. So when there's 7/8 spots on the line for go-or-go homers it's important for them to qualify together so no one gets a big weather advantage, but when there's only 3/4 spots available in time trials it's okay to let go-or-go homers qualify as much as 3 hours apart? Someone's gonna have to explain that one to me. Hopefully the Fox guys interview one of the go-or-go homers and ask them about this because it certainly doesn't seem fair at all.

I wish Fox was using the TiVo style format so we could see every qualifying run but since they aren't they're at least doing the right thing and not skipping any of the go-or-go homers for commercials so far....

Here's a clarification to what Mike Joy was saying about the front row / go-or-go home situation....

They take the top 2 go-or-go homers from each Duel, which leaves 3 spots for the fastest qualifiers not already in and 1 for the champion's provisional (or a 4th on Speed).

If Joe Nemechek for example qualifies 3rd fastest, he's guaranteed a spot in the field no matter what because he'll definitely be able to fall back on one of those 3 spots reserved for speeds regardless of what happens on Thursday. However, Joe could still race is way in on Thursday and let another guy make the field based on his speed.

If Joe qualifies on the front row, he's locked in to starting 1st or 2nd in the 500 and won't have the opportunity to "race his way in" on Thursday and open up and extra spot for a fast qualifier.

It's all complicated and hard to understand I know, but hopefully that helped clear things up a little bit anyway.

I don't blame you guys that are a little bit confused. The one element the Fox guys haven't explained is that more than just the 3 fastest go-or-go homers can make the field based on today's speeds.

Last year Boris Said, Sterling Marlin, and Johnny Sauter won the 3 guaranteed spots in qualifying. None of them qualified on the front row so still had a chance to "race their way in" on Thursday and open up another spot for a fast qualifier. Said raced his way in, which let David Reutimann (who was the 4th fastest go-or-go homer in qualifying) make the race.

Bill Elliott, Robby Gordon, and Kevin Lepage all raced their way in on Thursday which let Kvapil, Sadler, and Shelmerdine make the field on speeds (Terry Labonte took the champion's provisional).

So the 4th-7th fastest go-or-go homers in qualifying today could still make the 500 if enough go-or-go homers with faster qualifying speeds then them race their way in on Thursday and don't need to fall back on their time (and again, if a go-or-go homer makes the front row, he can't race his way in and will automatically have one of the spots reserved for qualifying speed).

Great. I live in VA. outside of D.C. My local Fox channel just interrupted qualifying for a news conference, and comments saying Jim Zorn was the new coach. That was in the Washington Post, this MORNING! I'm made because I was caught up in the qualifying runs and then "boom" off to a needless press conference that is still going on. Maybe Fox the network needs to have some say in the local control. I am so pis****.

You don't have to skip Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr. to show all the go-or-go homers. You can skip the worst of the top 35 teams, for which qualifying is basically irrelevant. If you have 15 commercial breaks skip the guys 21st-35th in the points, unless practice speeds show them as pole threats, in which case you bump up and skip the 20th car, etc.

In my opinion the go-or-go homers should be the primary focus of every qualifying day - whether you're Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Eric McClure, or Carl Long. They are the drivers that matter the most.

I hate that any driver should ever be skipped, but if someone HAS TO be skipped in a situation like today I think it should be a lower-tier top 35 team, and never a go-or-go home car.

Let's face it unless they can add enough extra time for commercials someone will not be missed. I believe all teams are important and am somewhat torn between seeing Carl Long or Kyle Petty. They are actually doing some of that, did anyone see Paul Menard? Unfortunately there has to be a choice. Perhaps the timing will not always be this crucial and Fox can tivo all the cars. Overall I am happy with the coverage, that of course could be because I'm a JImmie and Mikey fan

Okay, for those of you that don't quite understand all the qualifying intricacies here's a cheat sheet that you can reference on Thursday to follow who will or will not make the field:

(this assumes that Michael Waltrip can't "race his way in" as Mike Joy referenced earlier, this is the first time a go-or-go homer ever qualified on the front row so I'm assuming that Joy and I are both correct in our readings of the rules)

Cross out the 2 drivers that race their way into the Daytona 500 in each Duel race. That leaves 3 spots left to make the 500. They will go to the first 2 drivers left in group A and the first driver left in group B (if no drivers are left in group B then revert back to the next available group A driver).

I think Fox did a great job. I am sure they allowed a lot of time due to the Pro Bowl. There is no way they were going to skip the beginning of the game. NFL is still the most popular sport and more popular than the next 2 sports put together. For some of us, 7 month break is a long time.

I will be curious to see what the ratings are (on Fox)this season compared to last. Last season Fox had a 5.9 and that was with 2 rained out dates. Who knows, we might get some fans in NY once they see the Daytona 500 in Central Park on that big screen.

Anonymous said... FYI, Newscorp- parent company of Fox and Speed, does not own DirecTV. They haven't for about a year now.

February 10, 2008 4:50 PM

That may be true, but Rupert Murdoch, chairman of NEWSCORP, is ALSO chairman of DirecTV.

JD, I would like an article about SPEED HD. I also would like an explanation for what I heard from my cable company, COX. They say they have not heard ANYTHING form SPEED about SPEED HD. They say they have no reason to add a channel they have not heard about.

Like Kevin, I live in Va., and receive FOX from WTTG in Wash. DC., (via cable on SD TV). They cut in for the Redskins news conference at 3:00, and stayed with it for 30-40 or so minutes.

There was much gnashing of teeth, cussing,etc. at the "GarageBar" where I watch the races with some other guys. I understand the need for WTTG to cover this. There undoubtedly would have been far more very angry complaints if they had not shown the event live. They did run a side by side window with the qualifying in it.

That being said, it was a very poor execution. The window was so small, it was almost impossible to identify the car on the track unless there was a closeup of its number. It absolutely WAS impossible to read the scoring times.

If I had known a number to call and complain, I would have.

It sure would be intriguing to see if this would have happened during the actual race. I expect THAT would have generated some real nasty calls.

Oh well, in the bigger picture, it wasn't an earth shattering event. I hope there isn't an equally important, (to Wash. DC area folks), event during the race.